Finally, at last, a 2018-2019 PGA Tour schedule is official.
No real surprises, none whatsoever. We knew what was coming.
Biggest change moves The Players back into March (14-17) and the PGA Championship leaves the brutal heat of August and slides into the sometimes unpredictable weather of May (16-19).
Moving the PGA allows the stuffed shirts at The Tour to start their playoffs in early August with just three events next season instead of four.
The Northern Trust at Liberty National gets things going August 8-11. The BMW at Medinah outside Chicago is up after that (August 15-18) with the Tour Championship at East Lake (August 22-25). That gets things over and done before the NFL season, a goal of the tour with this new schedule.
Everyone knew The National (aka Quicken Loans) was done. It becomes the Rocket Mortgage in Detroit.
Of course Firestone got the axe. The Tour rewarded its Sugar Daddy — FedEx with a WGC event and St. Jude is the fortunate beneficiary, a good one at that. How’s that heat index in Memphis July 25-28?
In all, there are a whopping 46 events on the 2018-2019 schedule.
DeChambeau Defends At John Deere:
Bryson DeChambeau is simply too smart for the PGA Tour. After his use of a protractor and drawing compass tool, the PGA Tour started to shimmy and shake and decided to let the USGA do its dirty work. The stuffed shirts at the PGA Tour called in the stuffed shirts at the USGA and told them something had to be done about this DeChambeau kid.
Of course the USGA ruled that Bryson may not use his geometry/trigonometry devices to plot his way around golf courses and greens.
DeChambeau will not be deterred, he’ll play well without them. He might even come up with something new that might drive Jay Monahan and his henchmen nuts.
But for now he’ll be on hand this week at the TPC Deere Run outside Silvis, Illinois, to play in what used to be the old Quad-Cities.
DeChambeau got his first career win at the Deere with a spectacular back nine run on Sunday. He birdied 10, 11, 13 and 14 then added another at the par five 17th before he drained a dramatic 30-footer at the 18th for a closing 65 and a one-shot win over Patrick Rodgers.
